Some Strange Happenings in Theatreland

The following are all true stories of unusual and/or bizarre events that happened in the theatrical world during the time period to which this website is dedicated - gleaned from the newspapers of the day (mostly the London Daily Mail).

March 1897 - A Cruel Joke
Actor Frederick Lane played a bizarre and cruel practical joke on Mr. Brooke Stewart, a fellow member of the "True Blue" theatre company who were on tour at that time in Bristol. Lane, by insulting the good name of a lady in the company, induced proud Stewart to challenge him for the sake of the good lady's honour, and before he knew it Stewart had committed himself to a duel 'to the death'. Seconds were chosen from other male members of the company, and, at sunrise the following day, the combatants, together with their seconds and the obligatory surgeon, met at Brandon Hill in Bristol. A pair of duelling pistols were produced and the adversaries paced out the customary ten steps in opposing directions before turning and taking aim at their opponents. The signal was then given and both men fired. When the smoke cleared Lane lay crumpled in a heap and the surgeon declared that he was shot through the lung and dying. The seconds advised Stewart to get away before the police arrived, and that gentleman then fled the scene and spent the new few hours in a state of mental anguish over what he done until Lane turned up alive and well and without a mark on him. Only then was the joke revealed - the pistols had been stage props, the surgeon an actor friend from another company, the seconds fellow conspirators, and the whole affair an elaborate trick from start to finish - only poor Stewart had believed it to be real!

March 1897 - Copyright in a Song
Music-hall artiste Miss Blanche Harcourt's performance at the Peckham Theatre of Varieties was interrupted by an uproar in the audience in which certain persons accused her of singing another lady's song. Miss Harcourt was forced to retire behind the scenes without completing the number, and there, moments later, she was confronted by fellow artiste Miss Le Roy who, by chance, happened to be present on the night and claimed the song was hers. Miss Harcourt had bought the song in good faith from song-writer Mr. Felix McGlennon only days earlier, but Miss LeRoy declared that she had purchased the song two years previously from a Mr. Norton Atkins and had been singing it all over London ever since - a claim borne out by the audience's instant recognition of the number. Mr. Lovejoy, proprietor of the theatre, refused to let Miss Harcourt sing it further and, since it was the centre-piece of her act, terminated her engagement. Miss Harcourt then sued McGlennon for misrepresentation in the sale of the song's copyright and claimed substantial damages for actual pecuniary losses resulting from the termination of her employment as well as for sullying her professional honour. Judge Emden, hearing the case, found for the plaintiff but in so doing declared a distaste for the lyrics of the song and limited the damages to a paltry £10.00 plus costs.

February 1899 - A Rude Patron
At the Theatre Royal, Cardiff, during the concluding scene of "The Belle of New York," one of the leading actors stopped in the middle of one of his songs and addressed the audience saying: "I refuse to go on with my song as there is a man in front of me who has been reading a newspaper the whole evening. It's most disgusting!" The offending gentleman refused to put away his broadsheet, however, and the performance was forced to continue behind the gentleman's self-imposed curtain.

March 1899 - Wanted Their Money Back
A panic was narrowly averted at the Alhambra Theatre, West Hartlepool, when a fire broke out in an adjoining building during a performance of "Defender of the Faith." A whisper rapidly spread among the audience that the theatre itself was on fire and the patrons rose en masse and began a mad scramble for the exits. But actor-manager Stanley Hope then appeared on stage and assured everyone that the fire had not yet touched the building and that there was ample time to quit the building quietly. So calming were his words, in fact, that the evacuation was then held up by a blockage caused by numerous persons beseiging the box-office demanding their money back!

March 1899 - Accident in a Cab
Actress Marion Terry was injured in a freak accident when the rear wheels of a horse-drawn cab in which she was travelling late one evening suddenly detached from the vehicle. The horse then bolted and Miss Terry, who was alone inside, jumped from the vehicle and suffered minor head injuries as a result of the fall. She was confined to her bed at her home near Buckingham Palace but quickly recovered.

March 1899 - Mrs. Brown-Potters Jewels
A pair of confidence tricksters set their sights on Mrs. Brown-Potter's fine jewellery but reckoned without the quick thinking of her plucky French maid. At about nine-o'clock in the evening, whilst Mrs. Brown-Potter was on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre, playing Milady in "The Three Musketeers," the two men presented themselves at her residence claiming they had been from the theatre to fetch certain items that the actress required urgently. The maid, who was alone in the residence apart from an elderly cook in the downstairs kitchen, asked for proof of their authority - whereupon one of the men produced a letter on the theatre's notepaper which read:
"For Mrs. Brown Potter, Please give the bearer: Brooch and rings, Bracelets, Comb for Hair, Clasp for Neck."
It was signed "H.B.T." (Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, the manager of the theatre). The maid was suspicious but told the man bearing the letter she would go fetch the items. When he made to follow her she told him he would have to wait while she consulted "Monsieur." The man became alarmed and immediately asked if the gentleman was at home, whereupon the maid assured him he was. When she then called for the imaginary "Monsieur" the man bolted, closely followed by his companion who had remained outside. The daring maid immediately gave chase, shouting "Thief! Robber!" and attracted the attention of a passing policeman who took up the pursuit but failed to apprehend the tricksters.

June 1900 - A Dramatic Rescue
A gentleman walking along Leicester Square suddenly felt an object strike his tall hat, then saw it fall to the pavement in front of him. Picking up the object, he found it to be a scrap of wallpaper wrapped around a coin. Scrawled on the paper was the following message:
"George. Will you tell Mr. Wilson that we, Lillie Bircham, Nancy Houghton and Mabel Hunt have been locked in club (29, Leicester-square), and ask Rosie Burrows if any of the girls know the matron's address."
Looking up, the gentleman was surprised to see, at the top windows of the adjacent building, three pretty young faces gazing down imploringly at him. One of these ladies then called down begging him to take the note to the doorman at the Alhambra Theatre, just two doors further down the street. He did so, and Mr. Wilson, the stage manager, immediately despatched a rescue party to retrieve the young ladies who were needed on stage within the hour for that evening's performance of "The Soldiers of the Queen." In the absence of the key to open-up the rehearsal club inside which the ladies had inadvertantly been imprisoned, the intrepid rescue party of two stage hands, armed with a stout rope, made their way across the rooftops from the Alhambra to the rehearsal club and gained entrance by means of a trap-door in the roof - whereupon the three pretty heads disappeared from the windows, and the spectators, who had by now gathered in the street below, distinctly heard their squeals of delight at the appearance of their rescuers. Minutes later, the ladies were liberated and explaining to Mr. Wilson how they had fallen asleep inside the club that afternoon and later woken to find the place locked and in total darkness.

March 1901 - Married, but not in France
A french civil court returned a remarkable decision against a British actress, Mrs. Harrison, who hailed from a fine British family descended from Lord Nelson. Mrs. Harrison was a young widow with three children to support, and had begun a career on the stage following the death of her husband in order to put food in their bellies. Whilst appearing at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London she had caught the eye of Georges Roussel, a Paris dentist then in London. Over the following weeks Roussel had pursued her vigourously until, eventually, she agreed to marry him. Mrs. Harrison wished for the marriage to take place in Paris, where the couple were to live, but Roussel insisted it take place immediately in London and, accordingly, the ceremony was performed at St. Matthews church in Kensington. But when the new Madame Roussel accompanied her husband to begin their new life in Paris his mother stubbornly refused to accept her. In fact Monsieur and Madame Roussel senior railed against their son so persistently that he eventually acceded to their viewpoint, rejected his new bride, and began a case in the Paris Law courts to annul the marriage. Although there could be no question that the couple were legally married under English Law, the notoriously parochial French Tribunal ruled in favour of the plaintiff, declaring the marriage null and void on the grounds that in signing the register the groom had spelled his name incorrectly! Moreover, they satisfied themselves that the bride had known of this 'deception' and ruled that she was, for that reason, not entitled to any claim for compensation or alimony, and must pay her own costs in the case. This left Mrs. Harrison in the difficult position of being legally married in her own homeland, but not in that of her husband.

April 1901 - No Flowers for Melba
Australian prima donna Nellie Melba was appearing at Boston (USA) in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the operatic debut of her co-star, M. Edouard de Raszke. Admirers of that gentleman had arranged to present a bouquet to him over the footlights at the end of the production to celebrate the occasion, but when the time came and the expectant audience were waiting to honour M. Raszke an unexpected problem arose. It was caused by Madame Melba who could in no way be persuaded to accompany M. Raszke back on to the stage to receive the gift of flowers. Addressing to her co-star directly she said, rather ungraciously, "I will not go on the stage with a man and see him receive flowers when there are none for me. If you wish to accept the flowers over the footlights you must go alone, for I certainly shall not accompany you." When pressed further she added, "There is no other star here above me, and I will not submit to the indignity." Since the lady could not be swayed, M. Raske was forced to return to receive his accolade alone.

April 1902 - An Amazing Effect
The production of "Ben Hur" that opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, contained probably the most spectacular and intricate illusion ever seen on a theatre stage, recreating the chariot race of the story live on stage with four chariots, each drawn by four live horses. Each chariot had an electric motor built into the bed that turned the wheels whilst the horses ran on a treadmill. The arrangement for each chariot was built into a seperate platform that could be moved individually across the stage so that the chariots might alternate the lead in the race. Completing the effect, a continuous panoramic backcloth was wound around upright rollers so that it could be made to travel rapidly in the opposite direction to the horses. Even the dust of the chariots passage was reproduced by a narrow dust fill slot in the stage under each chariot wheel so that as the wheels span the dust was flung out behind the chariots. The whole apparatus, when in motion, subjected the stage to a working strain of no less than eighty-five tons, making it necessary to support the stage by means of sixteen steel pillars sunk into the concrete foundations. The production ran for 122 performances.
Illustration from The Daily Mail (London).

March 1903 - Irish Militants
A new production called "McFadden's Row of Flats", a musical production with vaudeville style songs and dances, greatly upset the American-Irish community with it's exagerrated caricatures of the Irish race - including a green-whiskered "Kerrigan, the Cop." A performance in New York was interrupted when a group of around fifty protesters in the audience pelted the players with rotten eggs, vegetables and other missiles. Five persons were arrested. An similar incident occured after the production transferred to Philadelphia at which eighteen arrests were made.

April 1903 - April Fools
Percy Williams, manager of the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn (New York, USA), perpetrated an April fools joke on his entire audience. Knowing that the assembly that night contained a sizeable contingent from a local masonic lodge, Mr. Williams rode onto the stage at the end of a performance and announced that he was about to perform a masonic ceremony in public. Calling three members from the secret society onto the stage he asked them to wait there and rode off on his camel. The lights went out and in near total darkness the audience waited vainly for his return until, after about quarter of an hour, the doorkeeper appeared and shooed them out of the building.

January 1904 - Bovril Take Offence
The directors of Bovril Limited, the manufacturers of the well-known beef-extract drink, threatened legal action against Mr. Courtice Pounds, an actor in "The Cherry Girl" company, over a line uttered by himself in that production in which his character jokes about the disappearance of some horses with the words "Alas! They are Bovril now." Bovril complained that they had spent considerable money advertising that their product contained only best beef and the insinuation that this might be otherwise was calculated to do them considerable harm. They demanded that the line be dropped and that Mr. Pounds send a written apology for them to publish. Mr. Pounds wrote back that the words complained of were those of the author of the play, and that they had better take up the matter with him. He did, however, from that point on substitute the line "Alas! They are beef extract now." This did not satisfy the Bovril directors however, and they next wrote to Mr. Seymour Hicks, proprietor of the Vaudeville Theatre where the show was produced, repeating their demands and stating that the change of words was "really quite insufficient" since most people would naturally connect the words "beef extract" with Bovril. Mr. Hicks then put an end to the matter with a curt but polite reply which read:
As to your request to leave out "all reference to beef or meat extracts," that we could not do, as we are already knee-deep in requests from various firms offering to pay handsome sums for the valuable advertisement you have received.

February 1904 - Self-Appointed Moralists
The Bill Posters Association, reacting to complaints received from a number of clergymen, appointed a committee to examine theatrical posters with the object of ordering the removal of any detail that they considered offensive or immoral. These self-appointed guardians of public morals, headed by Mr. William Allen, had no legal rights whatsoever to enforce this policy, save to instruct their members not to accept any posters the committee found to be unsuitable for their advertising stations.

April 1904 - The Red Headed Trickster
A well dressed and well spoken young woman visited the home of actor George Grossmith, claiming to bring a message from Mrs. Seymour Hicks (actress Ellaline Terriss). She then unfolded to Mr. Grossmith a pitiful tale of a recently deceased father, a former cutler, and a plan to sell items from his estate to set up a kindergarten school - to which, she claimed, Mrs. Hicks had already promised to send her children, and also those of Mrs. Arthur Bourchier (Violet Vanbrugh). Although he had no need of the items, Mr. Grossmith was impressed by her story and agreed to pay the rather generous amount of half a guinea (11 shillings and 6 pence) for a pair of scissors and a nailclipper - tendering a gold sovereign (worth 20 shillings) for which the young woman promised to return presently with change. When she subsequently failed to return with his change, and the items he had purchased turned out to be of a very inferior quality, Mr. Grossmith realised he had been duped and took the step of warning the other members of his profession against this very plausible confidence trickster. He soon discovered, however, that he was much too late as a large number of them had already made her aquaintance. Actress Amy Augarde, for example, had been taken in by a similar story and had paid the same amount of half a guinea for two pairs of scissors. On some visits the girl had managed to steal, or otherwise obtain, visiting cards (commonly used at the time) to ease her entry into other actors homes by claiming to be known to the card's owner. For a time the girl did quite a trade amongst the theatrical community but was never caught, despite the victims agreeing on the rather distinctive description of red hair, a withered right hand and a limp!

October 1905 - A Theatrical Fraud
Frederick Willett, a gas fitter, was sentenced to five months hard labour for perpetrating a theatrical fraud. Willett, using the name 'Walter Manby,' had posed as a casting director for a play entitled "The Curse of Drink" at the Grand Theatre, Islington, and induced a theatrical agency to send applicants to audition for him at his mother's address. Around a hundred male and female applicants were sent by the theatrical agent, including the complainant in the case, Miss Maud Fletcher. Miss Fletcher alleged that she had been offered a part in the production for a salary of 30s. a week, and had paid 'Manby' 5s. to affix a stamp to her contract. The contract turned out to be worthless - the production was real but had finished some weeks earlier.

August 1905 - Riot in a Theatre
A theatrical double-bill of the pastoral "Venus and Adonis" and Mascagni's opera "Amica" at the ancient Roman ampitheatre in Nime (France), were delayed when the musicians and choristers learned that the manager had not the funds to pay the salaries and refused to perform unless they were paid in advance. The exasperrated manager pointed to the 10000 people in the arena and promised to pay the wages later that evening from the receipts. The performance of "Venu and Adonis" was then given after which the demand for payment was renewed, and this time the strikers would not relent until each and every one of them had been remunerated. This caused such a delay, however, that the infuriated audience invaded the stage, tore down the scenery, and burned it in the middle of the arena.

October 1905 - An Actors Revenge
When the London theatre critics found fault with his latest melodrama, "Clarice," William Gillette, the great Sherlock Holmes impersonator, sought to teach them a lesson through the medium of a practical joke. Dragging them away from their firesides by inviting them to a 'preview' of an extract from his next production, "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes," Gillette subjected them to a long, rambling, and thoroughly incoherent monologue delivered by his good friend, Irene Vanbrugh, at the end of which her character was dragged off to a lunatic asylum. Gillette never spoke a word but enjoyed every moment of the non-plussed expressions on the critics faces.

February 1907 - On-Stage Cat-Fight
Miss Surratt, the principal 'Gibson Girl' in "The Belle of Mayfair" at Daly's theatre in New York, was so enraged that Miss Horton, a new show girl, had been given a dress almost identical to her own that she flew at the unfortunate newcomer on stage and ripped the dress from her, tearing it to shreds. The curtain was quickly lowered, leaving the bemused audience listening to the continuing shreiks as the fight carried on behind.

March 1908 - Kitty Gordon's Fine
Former actress Kitty Gordon, wife of the Hon. Mr. Henry Beresford, attended before Mr. Justice Plowden to answer a summons for using armorial bearings on her motor car without having taken out the necessary revenue licenses for the previous year. In her defence, counsel Mr. Barry Cohen, said the necessary licence had been taken out for the current year and that the previous year had been an innocent oversight. He further explained that Mrs. Beresford was happy to pay the cost of the licence plus whatever penalty the court might impose, but requested that she be permitted to pay the money into the poor box of the court so that the unfortunates of the parish might benefit from her mistake. Justice Plowden commended her charitable instincts but said that that was quite impossible, and imposed a fine of £7 1s., the cost of the licence, to be paid to the court. "But," he added smilingly to her counsel, "don't let her forget the poor box. If she is able to remember it!"

Later that month, Kitty's husband was called into court to answer an action brought by builder James Gibb, claiming £11 17s. allegedly owed for work carried out at their Lauderdale-mansions home. Gibb's counsel told the judge at Marylebone County Court that the defendant's wife was an actress appearing appearing in the West End who owned a motor car and kept servants - precipitating the following exchange.
Judge: "But you are suing him. What is he?"
Counsel: "I don't think he does anything at all."
Judge: "Well. I can't order him to pay anything unless you can prove means. Your evidence goes to show that he is living upon his wife."
With that the judge dismissed the case!

April 1908 - From Gallery to Pit
A young woman fell head-first from the gallery of the Croydon Empire theatre to the pit forty feet below. The woman, a late arrival, was making her way down the stairs toward her seat when she lost her footing in the darkness. Tumbling down past the remaining eight rows of seats she hit the protective rail at the gallery's edge before toppling over it, striking the edge of the balcony below, then descending the remaining distance to the pit where she fell across two emptly seats. The incident caused great consternation inside the theatre where everyone assumed the accident must have been fatal. Remarkably, however, the woman survived without a single broken bone.

January 1909 - A Cheating Husband
Lucinda Frances Butterfield, an operatic soprano and sister of Mr. George Bernard Shaw, was granted a decree nisi in her divorce petition against her husband, tenor Charles Robert Butterfield. Mrs. Butterfield alleged that during an enforced prolonged seperation, whilst she was recuperating from an illness in Germany, her husband had begun living openly in London with another woman, Miss Constance Barclay, an actress. On her return to England she learned of her husbands betrayal from Mr. Montefiore, a theatrical manager, who was the husband of Miss Barclay. Evidence produced at the hearing showed that the defendant had been conducting an affair with the co-respondent for sixteen years, and living with her whenever work commitments took his wife away from home.

January 1909 - Stopping the Stage-Door Johnnies
A Bill for the suppression of stage-door callers was introduced into the New York (USA) State legislature. The bill required that all male patrons of a theatre who desire to send notes to any actress must first register and sign their names in a book to be maintained by the theatre management. Entering a false name or address was to be punishable by imprisonment or a fine, and if any married man registered his wife would be informed.

November 1909 - A Too Real Fight
Actor Bernard Liell suffered a bizarre injury during a performance of "Who is She?" at the Ashton-under-Lyne Hippodrome. Liell had been engaged to play the part of a villainous Chinaman and the plot called for him to launch an attack upon the hero of the story. Two soldiers standing by were then to fire upon the Chinaman, wounding him and causing him to be carried off stage injured. The two soldiers, having very small parts with no words, were not played by professional actors, but by the stage carpenter and the theatre superintendant. On the night of the accident, Liell commenced his attack and the two 'soldiers' fired at him but neither rifle discharged. The superintendant, realising that the Chinaman had to be killed somehow, then improvised and lunged at Liell with his bayonet instead, but in his zeal badly judged his attack and the bayonet punctured Liell's cheek below the left eye causing a serious injury. As the superintendant withdrew the bayonet it then did fire and the blank charge entered Liell's wrist (Liell having belatedly raised his hands to fend off the blow) causing him further injury. Liell subsequently sued F. Hill Mitchelson, actor-manager of the "Who is She?" company, alleging negligence in allowing a rifle and bayonet to be used and handled by an incompetent person. Mitchelson's defence was that it was safe to use the rifles on the stage and that the two men in question were accustomed to them. At the hearing, at Lambeth County Court in March, 1910, Justice Emden expressed his opinion that the problem was precipitated by the rifles not firing when they should have done, causing the superintendant to act to resolve the situation. Accordingly, he ruled that the plaintiff had only just made out a case for damages, and entered judgment for £12 with costs.

January 1910 - Theft of a Fur Coat
When actress Violet Loraine embarked on a tour of the provinces she sub-let her flat at Kensington Hall Gardens, London, for the duration of her absence to Mr. Alfred Hammond, a Canadian friend of her mother. It was agreed that, for a rent of 25s. a week, Hammond would have full use of the property except for one room in which the actress locked away her personal possessions - including a valuable fur coat. But Hammond soon betrayed her trust. Not only was no rent ever paid, he gained access to the locked room and pawned her fur coat. Hammond was subsequently arrested and tried for theft, but as it was his first offence he was treated leniently and sentenced only to probation.

January 1911 - A Freak Accident
A freak accident occurred during a performance by the Imperial Russian ballet dancers at Hamilton, Ontario. Mikail Mordkin, the world famous dancer, was engaged in a swordfight scene with two other dancers when the blade of his sword broke and flew off into the audience. There it penetrated the skull of Robert Arthur Shiverick, the son of a wealthy American entrepreneur, who was sitting in the second row. Other members of the audience went to his aid and one man held on to Mr. Shiverick whilst two others wrenched out the blade which had lodged just above the left temple. With remarkable presence of mind, Mr. Shiverick helped to calm the audience by clasping a handkerchief to the wound and making his own way to the back of the theatre before collapsing. Madame Pavlova, who witnessed the accident, almost collapsed and knocked over an incense lamp, starting a small fire which the stage-hands quickly extinguished. Mr. Shiverick was gravely injured but survived the incident.

January 1912 - An Undesireable Alien
Mrs. Albertena Carlisle, a twenty-six year old actress who used the stage name Takaha San because of her oriental appearance was sentenced to three months imprisonment for contravening an expulsion order. Mrs. Carlisle had been expelled from the country three years earlier, at which time she had given her nationality as Japanese, but had since returned. On her second arrest she attempted establish that the original statement she had made about being a Japanese was untrue and that she was really a British subject, having been born at Kingston, Jamaica. She also claimed American citizenship as she had married an American citizen whilst in England. Her defending counsel appealled for leniency on condition that she leave the country immediately, but Mr Justice Denman, hearing the case, dismissed the appeal on the grounds the lady had lied to the court about her country of origin, having also, at one point, claimed to be a Dane.

January 1914 - Victory of the Orange Sellers
Home Secretary Reginald McKenna received a deputation of Drury Lane orange women and assured them that their ancient rights and privileges would be preserved. These ladies and their forebears had carry on their trade in the street outside the Drury Lane theatre since the days of Nell Gwynne, but recently the police had begun "moving them on" and subsequently imposed a total exclusion. Mr. McKenna promised them that the exclusion would be lifted to enable them to resume their business but said that he relied upon them not to cause an obstruction.

January 1914 - Follows Her Lover
When English comedian Mr. Leslie Kenyon died from an apoplectic seizure in New York, his American girlfriend, Lillian Sinnott, was so overcome with grief that she took her own life, cutting her throat whilst in the bathtub. Miss Sinnott, who was only twenty-four years of age, left a note begging her mother for forgiveness and and adding "you know I loved him."